Raymond Chandler by Tom Adams
Tom Adams is one of the most accomplished cover artists of the past 50 years. He’s better known for his long-running series of Agatha Christie book covers, but my favourites are the ones he did for the works of Raymond Chandler. These were the 1971 series of paperbacks from Ballantine Books. If Vintage Books (the current Chandler publisher) were to re-release these as oversized trade paperbacks, I’d buy the whole set.
You can visit Adams’ site here.
The covers are so striking, you can momentarily forget that they wrap some pretty good books. Chandler is one of my favourite authors. Here’s a great quote about him:
“Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence.” – Ross MacDonald
Chandler wrote detective fiction, and after a number of short stories published in the pulps introduced Philip Marlowe, private investigator, in his first novel The Big Sleep. In the series of novels that followed, we journey with Marlowe through Los Angeles in the Forties and Fifties.
I’ll refrain from telling you too much. Chandler is best experienced. What I will say is that Chandler didn’t give a damn about plot. The magic is in the characters, dialogue and moments.
My favourite book in the series to read is Farewell, My Lovely. Of Adams’ covers, Trouble is My Business followed by The Big Sleep. And the passage that grips me every time I read it is the second-to-last paragraph in The Big Sleep:
“What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn’t have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep.”
There are two followups to this post. The first is about the book The Great Detectives, written by Julian Symons and illustrated by Adams. It has a section devoted to Philip Marlowe. The second is some of my typographic exploration with Adams’ The Lady in the Lake cover.
Posted: January 25th, 2009 under Discussion.
Comments: 13
Comments
Comment from David Spanswick
Time: January 26, 2009, 1:35 am
Excellent, never seen these before.
Comment from Lauralee
Time: September 13, 2009, 11:04 am
Wow Scott, this is such a beautiful collection. Now I will have to start finding copies for myself. Wowzers!
Comment from Robert Hunt
Time: October 15, 2009, 12:04 pm
These were the covers that first introduced me to Chandler, whose books have never had such handsome editions since. Adams also did the cover for Lou Reed’s first post-Velvets album at around the same time.
Comment from Robert Zverina
Time: October 15, 2009, 1:36 pm
Love that Raymond. Today in Prague I found three early stories in new bilingual Czech/English editions. Can’t think of a more enjoyable way to improve my Czech.
A little tribute: http://www.zverina.com/2009/0918.htm
Another fave book designer–Barbara Martin’s Black Sparrow Bukowski covers: http://www.zverina.com/2003/0122.htm
Comment from admin
Time: October 15, 2009, 4:29 pm
I couldn’t agree more with the comments on your tribute page. Chandler is about the journey.
Pingback from Links: Rod and Reel « Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes
Time: October 23, 2009, 4:04 am
[...] gallery of Tom Adams‘ curious paperback covers for Raymond Chandler [...]
Comment from Will @ A Journey Round My Skull
Time: November 3, 2009, 2:11 pm
Sweet.
You might get a kick out of the Swedish Chandler cover in an old post on my blog:
http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/2009/07/cocktaildags-vintage-swedish-book.html
@ Robert Hunt — when I first saw these, I wondered why they felt familiar, and it’s because of the Reed lp cover.
Comment from admin
Time: November 3, 2009, 5:24 pm
The Swedish cover is great. Very appropriate.
Yeah, Adams did do a Lou Reed cover. Nice stuff.
Thanks for sharing.
Comment from Richard Robinson
Time: January 28, 2010, 12:00 pm
What a treat. I read “discovered” and Chandler around 1982, and the paperbacks I bought then had these covers. I have always thought they fit the contents very well indeed, captured the complex ferocity and beauty of Marlowe’s world.
Thanks for this post, I hope it will remain available for many others to discover. I’ve linked it from my blog in today’s post.
Pingback from The Joy of Discovery « The Broken Bullhorn
Time: January 28, 2010, 2:54 pm
[...] Then a friend of mine told me about a book I just HAD to try. An absolute must, he said, even if I did usually read Christie, et al. It had an odd title, but I got a copy and read it, while on vacation, lying on a beach in Mexico, as a mater of fact. The title? The Simple Art of Murder. with that great Tom Adams cover. The ground shook, the sky cracked open, I had a Joy of Discovery moment unlike any other since Tolkien. Raymond Chandler’s writing and plots hit me like an exploding light bulb. I bought and read every Chandler short story I could lay hands on. When those were gone, I went looking for the novels. (For more of the great covers painted by Adams, see here) [...]
Comment from Richard von Busack
Time: March 5, 2010, 1:17 pm
I’m always on the lookout for these! I’m so glad you put these up here. Incredibly evocative, damn near cried seeing them again. Take good care of ‘em.
Comment from Donald Tilston
Time: March 16, 2010, 5:48 am
Beautifully produced pictures. I notice Playback is missing – did he do a cover for this?
Comment from admin
Time: March 16, 2010, 4:31 pm
As far as I know, no, he did not. I believe the first Ballantine paperback edition of Playback was the 1973 art deco airbrush-style version.
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